Texas State University has suspended fraternity and sorority activities following the death of a fraternity pledge at an off campus social event. Chapters are prohibited from holding new member events, chapter meetings, social functions, and philanthropic activities until a thorough review of the Greek Affairs system is completed.http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_rel...eks111417.html

Two alcohol-related deaths just over 12 months apart. Texas State's president can likely justify the immediate administrative action. It is interesting that the suspension seems patterned on the recent FSU suspension.

Suspending all fraternity members' constitutional rights without at least notice and an opportunity for a hearing is unconstitutional on its face. They didn't even give some passing semblance of due process. There must be some backroom dealing between the Greek community and the administration because to me, this pretty much looks like free attorney fees for anyone who files a lawsuit as civil rights lawsuits mostly require the offending state actor to pay the Plaintiff's attorney's fees.

The legality of the blanket suspension at Texas State cannot really be discussed intelligently because we have no specific information about the suspension notices given to each organization and the exact language included in them. We can only generally assumed that the action taken by Texas State's president was some type of emergency suspension; however, this may not actually be the case. For example, we have no way of knowing the detailed agreements entered into by each Greek organization with university or the conditions, powers and authorities contractually granted by each organization to the university. It does appear that each organization will be under some type of review by the university to determine whether it will be allowed continued university affiliation.

Anyway - here is a more detailed press report about what the university is doing.

So the denial of students' First Amendment rights without so much as notice or an opportunity for a hearing cannot be intelligently discussed? No. It's illegal to do what the school did. One of these days, a group is going to challenge this and win.

So the denial of students' First Amendment rights without so much as notice or an opportunity for a hearing cannot be intelligently discussed? No. It's illegal to do what the school did. One of these days, a group is going to challenge this and win.

I probably should have said jump to conclusions instead of intelligently discussed. My point is that we know very few facts here. What is clear is that Texas State's president has delegated authority to suspend without prior notice or hearing if there is a continuing danger or an ongoing threat of disruption of the school, but must set a case hearing as soon as practicable. From what I can tell, Texas State has a pretty good legal staff backstopping the university's disciplinary actions. This is what I meant when I said we have not seen the actual notices that went out to the groups. I would expect that many of the suspensions (especially the sororities) to be lifted pretty quickly at those hearings.

I can't overemphasize the fact that in the last 10 months four fraternities at Texas State were suspended multiple years (with some having their charters revoked) because of university alcohol policy violations during an October 2016 party where a severely intoxicated sorority member was killed. Now, less than 13 months later, another person dies under apparent circumstances that clearly violate the university's hazing and alcohol policies. There are likely more incidents documented by Texas State where a death was not involved, so we are not aware of them.

While all discussions are about legalities here are we missing the point that hazing and deaths keep going on and on? Is this a which came first situation? The chicken or the egg? Which is more important, life or death?

Yes, I agree that the bounds were over stepped here, but whose fault does the blame lay?

^^ I would hazard to guess that the vast majority of GCers are against hazing, and subsequent deaths by hazing or alcohol intake.

What we are questioning is the universal suspension on all Greek activities, especially chapter meetings. I do not know about other organizations, but my own uses the ritual that binds us at 90% of our meetings. It's the ritual that brings us together and unifies/bonds us.

My personal opinion is that the university should provide the chapter presidents and IFC/NPHC/NPC/MGLO reps with as much on going information as possible. Then, allow the chapters to conduct chapter meetings so that information can be dispensed by the officers and reps to their chapter members. Having the information can help stop rumors and also let the members know that the university admin is trying to work with Greek Life orgs instead of just playing dictator.